


Re: Pray

by Kiyomii



Series: Re: [1]
Category: Toaru Majutsu no Index | A Certain Magical Index
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2020-12-09 03:34:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20988152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiyomii/pseuds/Kiyomii
Summary: A young Shokuhou Misaki finds herself willing to do anything just to keep her shameful past a secret from Kamijou Touma as she prays for the strength to forgive herself who can only live for her own sake.





	1. End

**Author's Note:**

> Rape/Non-con is merely implied in this story.

Misaki wanted to be like Kanami on TV. Not Magical Girl Kanami saving people like a hero, but ordinary Kanami with loving parents who did not treat Kanami like a slave.

"The dishes aren't going to wash themselves, you stupid girl!" said a plump middle-aged lady.

This fat bitch was her "stepmother" who must have sold her hideous soul to the devil in exchange for an equally hideous monster willing to marry her.

Misaki lowered her head as she entered the kitchen. She wasn't going to let anger destroy her image of a meek little girl in front of her "step-parents". Only a meek little girl would be allowed to leave house and buy groceries without any fears of her running away.

By the time Misaki was done with the dishes, her bitch "stepmother" had already left the house for karaoke with her bitch friends. It was no surprise that the meeker she appeared in front of them, the more joy they got from forcing her to do humiliating acts such as licking the floor on all fours in exchange for a small scoop of her favorite vanilla ice cream. That kind of humiliation however, was better than the other kind of humiliation she had to go through each time she wanted to leave house.

"Uncle Hiroshi, may I please leave the house to get some groceries for Aunt Hiroshi?" said Misaki as she averted her eyes away from that monster's creepy smile. He usually interprets it as fear, but it was really sheer disgust to the point where if she looked just one second longer, she might actually stab her fingers into his eyes and then finish him with the sharpest blade in the kitchen.

The monster closed the curtains and made sure the door was locked, "If you're a good girl, sure."

Misaki took off her clothes slowly, piece by piece before she knelt down on all fours.

===

A large tub of vanilla ice cream was what Misaki needed to forget the bitter aftertaste in her mouth as a portable printer connected to a PC spat out images after images inside a private internet cafe room.

The Internet was a vast world filled with knowledge, but she had too little time to explore, so the only way was to buy time and money with her body. Misaki hated what that monster would always do to her body every single time, but it was also that monster that taught her the value of her body. It was apparently valuable enough to get money for spy cameras connected to a cloud server and a portable printer.

Misaki left the internet cafe room for a small police station armed with a brown A4 envelope just across the street. It may be difficult to convict someone of sexual abuse in Japan, but she had evidence so clear that any lawyer who takes her case would win without a doubt.

Kagurazaka, the area she lived in was rather peaceful, so there wasn't anyone else around inside the station other than the two bored police officers on duty.

"Please… please save me from this nightmare," said Misaki, her voice trembling as if she would burst into tears any moment. Males tend to be more sympathetic to cute girls who are almost in tears. It triggers their natural instincts to protect the weak such as herself.

A police officer opened the A4 envelope, and to Misaki's surprise, the officer seemed rather nonchalant as he looked through the pictures.

"Are you sure you didn't use any photo editing tools to frame an innocent man?" said the officer.

Misaki shook her head, "Please believe me. Whatever you see in the picture is true! I even have-"

"Alright, that's enough." said another police officer as he chucked the A4 envelope and the pictures into a paper shredder, "Mr Hiroshi is a respectable businessman who took you in out of kindness and I won't allow an ungrateful brat like you to ruin his life."

Misaki stomped out of the police station. Fine. Maybe the police station in Shibuya will take her case more seriously!

From the corner of her vision, she noticed a man following her. Was that monster secretly in cahoots with the local police and had that man on standby to follow her if evidence of him sexually abusing her appears?

Misaki sprinted into an alley. She took off her necklace and hurled it into a dustbin. This necklace was a special USB stick in disguise manufactured by Academy City, a city with technology 30 years ahead of the world. Even if her cloud server was hacked into by Academy City's technology, she still had this necklace as her final backup which she must retrieve by Thursday morning before the garbage collectors arrive.

Waiting at the exit of the alley was that man with a gun pointed at her.

"What do you want from me?" said Misaki as she inched backwards. There was no way she could ever outrun a bullet, but maybe if she inched backwards enough, she could leap sideways and disappear from that man's view.

The man pulled the trigger, and Misaki fell to the ground paralysed. There was nothing she could do to fight back or scream as the man stripped her and stuffed her clothes into his bag. He was someone hired by that monster Hiroshi to follow her as soon as she left the house. Whatever she had been planning was never a secret. No wonder the police were so nonchalant when she showed them the evidence. They were all in this together!

"I'm not here for your necklace," said the man with a smirk, "I'm here for you. You've had your fun with so many men that one more wouldn't matter, right? I promise to leave you alone for good once I'm finished."

Tears leaked from the corners of Misaki's eyes.

Just a shitty deal where she gets nothing in return. Nothing to cry about. Nothing to cry about at all...

Yet the tears won't stop flowing.

===

Kamijou Touma walked through an alley to avoid the crowd in the bustling street of Shibuya, known to be the most energetic district in Tokyo. Not everyone he touches is doomed to be cursed with misfortune, but he'd rather not take that risk. There was nothing to be afraid of when only the most desperate of people would be willing to rob or assault him.

Touma felt something sharp pressing against his back.

"You must be new here," said Touma. "Or you simply have nothing else to lose."

"Shut up and hand over all your money!" said a male voice.

Touma turned around to see a disheveled man with tattered clothes. The man must be so poor that the knife he was holding with grimy fingers was yellowish and rusty. Touma ignored the man's desperate screams for him to stop moving as he casually reached into his pocket.

"Good luck," said Touma as he dropped a few thousand yen on the floor. A weak attempt to make himself feel better for destroying the lives of many innocent people just by touching them, but an attempt nonetheless.

Bluish electric currents shocked the man unconscious. Touma read about Academy City, and how that incredible city actually managed to produce espers, or people with supernatural abilities, but to see one in person was still quite the experience.

"You alright?" said a girl who was an esper that could shoot lightning out of her fingertips.

"I should be asking you that question."

"What? Do I look not alright to you?"

"You just shocked a grown man unconscious! How is that alright to you?!"

The girl laughed, "Oh, he'll be fine after a hour or two. Trust me, I've done this over a hundred times."

She was definitely not alright. Mentally, at least.

"You are?" said Touma.

"Misaka Mikoto. And you?" said Mikoto with an outstretched hand.

"The last time I shook someone's hand, he was admitted to the hospital for six months when a tree fell onto him. My name is Kamijou Touma by the way, the boy who brings misfortune to whoever he touches."

Mikoto grabbed hold of his hands just like one of the many who didn't believe in things like "luck", but that doesn't make her immune to the fact that something horrible was probably going to happen to her soon. Maybe less horrible than the others since she wasn't normal, but the opposite could also be true.

"You need to change your backward superstitious thinking," said Mikoto, "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Have you ever wondered if there's someone behind all the unfortunate things that happens to whoever you touch?"

Touma blinked. The idea of someone screwing over whoever he touches on purpose had never really occurred to him. If that someone really exists, then why would he or she do that? Drive him out of Japan to where?

Sparks flew erratically out of Mikoto's bangs.

"What did you do to me?!" said Mikoto.

Touma shielded himself from a stray lightning bolt with his right hand. The lightning bolt vanished without a trace. He couldn't exactly remember why his right hand could negate supernatural powers, but it had something to do with one of his previous lives who dealt with dragons.

Mikoto's electric outburst calmed down when a necklace fell out of her pocket.

"I told you so. Bad things happen to people who touches me," said Touma.

"Huh, I had no idea that this necklace was technology from Academy City."

"What do you mean by- oh god."

The necklace, despite its small size, was sophisticated enough to project a video onto the wall. He even recognized the girl in that video. She once appeared briefly in a news article for having star-shaped irises. Meanwhile, the man in the video was a rich businessman who organized an event once or twice in Kagurazaka together with his father Kamijou Touya.

Mikoto switched off the necklace with a confused frown, "That was a really weird video. Do you know what's going on in that video?"

Touma shook his head because it was easier than explaining. He envied Mikoto for not knowing that the video she just watched was clear evidence of a man sexually abusing a young girl. It may not seem that way because the girl wasn't in tears, but not everyone expresses their pain through tears.

"I shouldn't have expected much from an idiot like you."

A man stepped out from the shadows. He was dressed like how one would expect from an agent in a generic spy movie with a black suit and sunglasses. Anyone wearing sunglasses at night was either someone from Academy City or a psychiatric hospital.

"Please hand over the necklace to me," said the agent. "I'm from an organization in Academy City tasked to retrieve technology smuggled out from Academy City."

"What organization?" said Mikoto. "Judgement? Anti-Skill? I'd prefer to hand it over to Anti-Skill myself once I return to Academy City."

The agent took out a tablet displaying Mikoto's profile as a Level 2 Electromaster, "Please don't make things difficult for me."

Mikoto reluctantly handed the necklace over to the agent, "Fine."

"What's wrong?" said Touma as the agent disappeared into the shadows again. The agent did seem rather suspicious just from his looks alone, but Touma wasn't confident of going against a trained agent with a gun probably hidden somewhere in his suit.

"You wouldn't understand since you aren't from Academy City. Anyway, I just have a bad feeling about this," said Mikoto before waving goodbye.

It did not matter to Touma where the necklace went because handing it to the police would do absolutely nothing. That man in the video, which Touma remembered now as Hiroshi Goro, had a certain influence in the police force due to his connections. That fucker also almost succeeded in framing him for murder because of the influence he had.

Touma had his ways of ensuring that the girl would get the justice she deserves. Actually, there was just one way. A fist across that disgusting fucker's face!

The agent reappeared from the shadows, "Perhaps I could be of assistance if you want to find that girl."

"What exactly are you?" said Touma.

The agent lit up a cigar with an amused smile, "If I told you I was actually a golden retriever controlling this artificial body from a distance, would you believe me?"

"I suppose a talking golden retriever would attract too much attention to whatever you are doing."

If it's Academy City, even a fish who could fly and talk wouldn't be that surprising. In fact, a talking golden retriever was just boring compared to what Academy City can do. It has technology 30 years ahead of the world after all.

"Right now, you're the only one who can save that girl, but you have to find her first before it's too late."

===

Misaki sat alone in an abandoned church wearing clothes that a dog offered her out of nowhere by chance. If there was really a God, has He abandoned her just like how the people of Shibuya had abandoned that statue of Jesus Christ now covered with grime and dust? For a while, she was happy with life in Milan with her mother until the Mafia kidnapped her and killed her mother for trying to save her. This must be the moment that God for whatever reasons decided that she wasn't worth the effort anymore and abandoned her.

Sure, Olly the Octopus and his friend Silvia saved her from the Mafia using magic like Magical Girl Kanami, and of course it wasn't fair for them to be her new adoptive parents so they sent her to Japan to live with someone they thought would at least treat her like a human being, but God had already abandoned her at this point, so of course nothing good came out of this arrangement.

Misaki hugged her knees in tears. The moment the police finds her it's all over. The monster Hiroshi would never let her out of his house ever again. Her limbs would be chopped off to stop her from escaping!

"I don't deserve this… I'm a good girl who did nothing wrong..."

If there was something wrong she did to piss off God, then it would be her refusing to go to church every Sunday with her mother because she wanted to watch Winx Club instead. Would a miracle from God happen if she said sorry and promise to go to church every Sunday from now on?

"You alright?" said a boy with black spiky hair around her age.

Misaki jumped out of the bench in shock. The boy appeared right beside her without a sound. She frantically wiped her tears away, but maybe she should have kept crying to earn some valuable sympathy points from him.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Are you lost? Do you need me to call the police?"

"No! Don't call the police, please!"

"Are you a runaway child criminal or something? A shame that there's no priest here for you to confess your sins."

Was this boy… mocking her?! It would seem really awkward if her reply to his snarkiness was a sob story about being sexually abused by a monster.

"Your hairstyle is the most pathetic imitation of Takahashi Hideo I've ever seen. Are you here to seek forgiveness from God for offending everyone with your hideous spiky hair?"

The boy chuckled, "Come on, it's not that bad. Besides, if God exists, then he must be a pretty shitty asshole for allowing so many bad things to happen."

Misaki hurled a shoe at the grimy and dusty statue of Jesus Christ. If she was strong enough, she would have also hurled the bench. "You have no idea how much God screwed me over just because I didn't attend church every Sunday. If you can hear me God, not even you are above karma! You'll also burn in Hell with those damned souls you call sinners!"

The boy climbed onto the altar and pushed the statue down. Jesus Christ broke into half with a resounding bang. "Feeling better?"

Misaki didn't know what came over her when she hugged that boy. He may be someone who was around her age, but he was still a male. She couldn't let her guard down yet. He might be playing the long game to get into her pants.

"Don't worry. Everything will be alright," said the boy.

No, everything won't be alright when the police arrives. They had every right to return her back to that monster Hiroshi. There was nothing the boy could do unless he had some kind of magic that could force the police to bow to his will like what Olly the Octopus did to the Mafia.

"My name is Kamijou Touma by the way. What's yours?"

"Misaki. Shokuhou Misaki. Wait… are you that Kamijou Touma? The legendary god of pestilence?!"

Touma forced a smile, "Yeah, that's me. Not a fan of that title though."

"You have no idea how you've just saved my life!"

The police sirens and the red flashy light through the broken windows was no longer her end. Misaki walked out of the church with her hands locked together with Touma. That wiped the monster's phony concerned smile off his face.

No police came after her or Touma as they left through a side-path. In their eyes, she was now also cursed with the same type of misfortune as Touma just by coming into contact with him or that whatever misfortune that was going to happen to her soon would affect them as well. Even that monster Hiroshi must have thought the same and decided not to take the risk. No police nor that monster would want her around Kagurazaka anymore. She was finally free thanks to Touma.

Misaki never expected a boy cursed with spreading misfortune to others wherever he goes to be someone so carefree in the sense that he refused to let his curse not take away his rights to be himself. He was someone she could at least respect even if he was still an asshole for calling her a runaway child criminal when she was actually a victim.

It would be nice if she could keep on holding his hands even as the light drizzle turned into heavy rain.

"It's raining," said Touma.

"I know."

"You must really like the rain."

Misaki nodded. To hold hands with a guy she likes under the rain was a romantic fantasy come true.

"No regrets?"

There was no way she would ever regret this.

===

It took Misaki three days before she recovered from flu and fever. She was an idiot for not realizing that people can get sick from being in the rain for too long, but Touma didn't have to rub that fact into her face by chucking yet another pack of instant oatmeal porridge into a shopping basket. Throbbing headaches were nothing compared to the agony of not being able to eat anything sweet.

"I've already eaten that for the past three days already! Are we going to be eating this for the rest of our lives?!" said Misaki.

"Of course not. Unless you really like oatmeal porridge..." said Touma as he placed a strawberry ice cream cone into the basket with a playful grin.

Touma may look around the same age as her, but he seemed much, much more mature than he looks. Perhaps he was also like her, a child forced to grow up in a cruel world to survive.

Not everyone Touma touches gets cursed with misfortune, but because he didn't want to risk it, he had to do grocery shopping at an 24 hours convenience store with a self checkout kiosk past midnight where everyone was asleep. If he was actually in pain from living such an isolated life, then he had done a great job in hiding it behind a mask through his carefree attitude.

Misaki devoured her strawberry ice cream cone as she sat at the park bench beside Touma. Her favorite flavor was vanilla, but strawberry was pretty good as well.

"Maybe magic might have a cure for your curse. I know a guy who used magic when he saved me from the Mafia during my time in Milan. His name is Olly the Octopus."

"A talking male octopus from Academy City who can somehow survive on land?"

"No, that's just a nickname I gave him. I don't remember his real name, but he knocked out a group of thugs just by looking at them. It was the coolest thing I've ever seen! So I named him Olly the Octopus because it's like he had invisible arms that knocked everyone unconscious."

"Any idea how we can find Olly the Octopus then?"

Misaki frowned. Olly the Octopus certainly didn't leave his contact number with her. In fact, he didn't even have a phone, and she was also an idiot for not asking how she could contact him if she ever needed him.

Touma leaned back with a smile, "It's okay."

Misaki wondered what was Touma hiding behind his smile as he stared at the starless night sky. She had only known him for three days, so it probably wasn't nice of her to ask about his personal issues, but there was at least one thing she could do for him.

Misaki kissed Touma on his cheeks. People might call her naive or stupid, but she still wanted to believe that Touma isn't like the others who would treat her nicely just to have sex with her. If she hadn't fallen into despair yet, then there's no reason for him to.

"That's… that's uh, sexual harassment. I can sue you for that," said Touma, his cheeks tinged red with embarrassment.

"Not if you're cute."

Touma reached behind her ears and pulled out a small cherry blossom flower, "Flowers for the cute girl?"

This magical moment between her and Touma was overwhelmingly beautiful yet tragically short just like that cherry blossom flower. If their time together was destined to be like a cherry blossom flower, then when it all ends, could she achieve an ending with Touma without an end?


	2. Sinner

Hiroshi Goro waved the prostitute out of his hotel room before pouring himself a glass of red wine. Compared to Misaki, that prostitute was an amateur who had the audacity to charge 50,000 yen per hour. Such a pity that the pest Kamijou Touma got to her first and infected her with something worse than a STD.

Satoshi, the man he sent to retrieve Misaki's clothes attached with nano spy cameras and the necklace, wasn't answering his calls. Did that shit stain just sold him out to the Katze Industries? The current CEO isn't above using blackmailing to get cheaper manufacturing materials from him.

Goro felt a hand on his shoulder. How did this person wearing a motorcycle helmet appear beside him without a sound?

"Who are you?" said Goro.

"It doesn't matter."

Goro stumbled back as he wiped the blood off his face. He hurled a fist at the helmet guy who dodged it and gave a swift kick to his balls before smashing the wine bottle over his head.

Goro fell to his knees in agony.

"What wrong did Misaki do to deserve being sexually abused by a scumbag like you?" said the helmet guy.

"Playing the hero now? Sex with her must be mind blowing enough for you to go that-"

Another fist to his face from the righteous hero.

"Answer my question. What wrong did she do to deserve being sexually abused by a scumbag like you?"

"You think I was going to let her be a freeloader at my house? If she has no money to pay for rent and food then her body will have to do. That's how cruel the real world is, Kamijou Touma. Don't let the kindness of that judge fool you into thinking otherwise."

The judge was a fucking dumb bitch who insisted on upholding the law despite knowing that Kamijou Touma was a walking plague who would infect everyone with misfortune. Nobody would blame her if she ruled that Touma was guilty and should be sentenced to life imprisonment.

Touma took off his helmet, "This world isn't as cruel as you think, but what you're going to face soon will be something far more cruel."

Goro let out a resigned sigh. Anyone touched by Kamijou Touma would be cursed with misfortune, including him. The slut Misaki succeeded in destroying everything he had.

===

Misaki dusted off a laptop she found inside a cabinet near the TV. Touma was out doing his midnight shopping at the convenience store despite making a large purchase at one go yesterday midnight enough for a week because there were some stuff he 'forgot' to buy. What a horrible liar.

The screen lit up. As much as she wanted to know the truth behind his 'midnight shopping', she had only known him for four days. It wasn't nice to be too nosy, especially when she was dependent on him for housing and food.

Misaki successfully logged into her secure cloud server.

All of her saved videos containing evidence of that monster sexually abusing her was deleted. It doesn't really matter anymore. She was already free from that monster thanks to Touma. Maybe it was better this way. No need to let Touma know that dirty part of her past.

Misaki shut the laptop down when she heard the creaking sound of the front door being opened.

Touma plopped himself onto the sofa. What kind of 'midnight shopping' could possibly exhaust him to the point where he was about to fall asleep at any moment?

"You didn't even buy anything," said Misaki.

"Something happened along the way."

"What happened?"

"An opportunity to punch that fucker in the face."

Apparently, the monster Hiroshi also attempted to frame Touma for murder because he wanted Touma to disappear from this world. Touma decided that enough was enough after hearing her partially true story of that monster physically abusing her whenever she wasn't fast enough to tend to he and his wife's needs.

Touma chuckled, "I think I deserve a reward for that."

Who was she kidding? All men were the same. They just only want one thing when they decide to be the hero. She was dumb and stupid to think that Touma would be different.

Misaki knelt down in front of Touma with a smile, "Sure."

Before she could reach for his pants, he grabbed her arm and helped her back to her feet.

"Could you make me a bowl of oyakodon? I'm starving like hell over here."

===

Misaki could finally let herself cry freely as she chopped onions in the kitchen. There was no way Touma could possibly be that nice to her without demanding sex. It might also be possible that he has no idea what sex was given his age, but the way he looked at her wasn't confusion. He knew what she was about to do. Must have somehow secretly read too much of his father's porn magazines.

Cooking a meal for someone worth it was true happiness she hadn't felt for a long time.

===

Satoshi found himself chained to a bed, spreadeagled and naked. He remembered being chased by an Academy City agent before a flash bomb went off, and then he was knocked unconscious by someone.

"Anyone here?" said Satoshi.

Also, why was he stripped naked? If it was punishment for smuggling Academy City's technology to the outside world, he should have been shot dead by now.

A muscular African man appeared with a monster dildo. He had muscles so huge he looked like he could tear people into half with just his bare hands. Even the wooden floor shuddered in fear as he walked.

"Finally awake, ching chong?" said the African man. Or African-American judging from his accent.

"What the fuck is going on here? Why am I being tied up like this?"

"That's because you've been a really bad boy."

"I don't understand what-"

Satoshi howled in pain as the African-American man rammed the dildo up his ass without any lubricant.

"First, I'd like to thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity to teach this motherfucking rapist a lesson on empathy. Amen," said the African-American man. "The Devil of Academy City sends her warmest regards."

Anguished screams filled the air as the African-American man proceeded to violently destroy Satoshi's anus with that monster dildo of his.

===

Misaki served tea to Touma's parents, who came to visit him after their holiday in Europe. There were many people who wanted to kill them just for being Touma's parents, but none of them ever succeeded. It was like God had been protecting them from any harm and from Touma's misfortune in secret. Because of that however, Touma decided it was best he lived alone to satisfy the desires of those indirectly affected by his misfortune to see him miserable and isolated from everyone.

Misaki flashed a grin at Touma's despairing look. His childhood must be filled with many embarrassing events she could laugh at.

"Mum, you know I love you right?" said Touma.

"You have nothing to worry about. Now go inside the room with your father while I have a nice chat with your girlfriend over a cup of tea," said Touma's mother.

Girlfriend as in a friend who happened to be a girl, unfortunately. With enough time, that can be changed to romantic partner who happened to be a girl. Touma's parents seemed to like her a lot, so that's half the battle won already. What was there not to like about? She carried out her duties as a housewife, even though she wasn't exactly one, flawlessly.

"Please just don't show her that video," said Touma.

Touma's mother laughed, "You have my word."

Kamijou Shiina, who was Touma's mother, took out her smartphone and started showing Misaki pictures after pictures of Touma when he was just a toddler. It was a time when Touma had no idea how much misfortune he would bring to people just by touching them, and so, the smiles he had as a toddler was the most genuine smile Misaki could ever see from him. How long has it been since Touma felt true happiness?

Shiina paused at a picture where toddler Touma was standing with his preschool classmates, "I've never considered myself as a religious person, but I've been praying everyday to God for Him to not let Touma live the rest of his life alone," and then smiled at Misaki, "I'm so glad that you're here with him."

"Touma may have destroyed many lives with his misfortune, but his misfortune saved my life. My psychopathic abusive parents are so paranoid about me spreading his misfortune to them that they finally left me alone in peace."

"Let's make a small deal," said Shiina.

"A deal?"

"Try to get Touma out of this house more often, and I'll tell you about the video that Touma doesn't want me to show anybody."

Misaki offered a handshake, "Deal."

===

It wasn't very hard to get Touma out of the house if it was a midnight stroll in Yoyogi Park because no one in their right mind would be there at such an ungodly hour. The goal, though almost impossible, was to eventually get Touma out of the house during the day.

"What's the difference between a snot and a broccoli?" said Misaki.

"Shut up."

"You only told your mum not to show the video, not that she couldn't describe the video in words."

The video was just Touma telling a really lame joke to his parents, and for some reason he seemed to be really embarrassed about that joke. Anyway, he should be embarrassed because that joke was just... bad. The answer to the joke was that there's no difference. Really? No difference?

"Think about it," said Touma, "If I put snot or broccoli into your bowl of ice cream, you'd feel equally disgusted, right?"

"I'd go bring you to see a psychiatrist because you clearly have issues. By the way, that's pity I feel for you, not disgust."

Touma got a drink from the vending machine and tossed it over to Misaki with a smile, "Very practical. I like you."

Misaki would have been fooled by his smile if she hadn't noticed Touma pressing the option for a vegetable juice and muttered how unlucky he was when a strawberry soda came out of the machine. Still, the cold soda was not cold enough to soothe the burning sensation on her cheeks. It wasn't fair how a casual compliment from Touma could make her feel that way so easily.

"Tell me more about your family and your childhood in Italy. It's not fair that you only know about mine," said Touma.

Her childhood in Italy before the Mafia appeared wasn't very interesting. Every day, she would just stay at home and watch TV while her mother was out at work. Sometimes, they would go to church together for Sunday evening services.

Her family though, was more interesting. Her mother was Japanese, and her father was British and not Italian. She was an 'accident' from her mother's one night stand, but God always has a plan as her mother always says, so she was instead a gift from God even though an accident would be more accurate.

"... I think my father was from the Birdway family, or at least that's what Olly told me. It's a rich family, so they probably didn't want another person to fight over their assets and refused to take me in. So Olly looked into Japan, and that's how I ended up with my step-parents."

Touma ran his hand through Misaki's hair. He may be looking at her, but Misaki could tell he was really looking at someone else.

"How could I have forgotten… you have the same hair as her," said Touma.

Misaki leaned closer to the point where their lips were almost touching, "Who is she? Your ex-girlfriend?"

"It's complicated."

"Yes or no?"

"I don't-"

Touma grabbed the blade of a knife. It happened so fast that Misaki didn't even see his hand move.

The terrified figure holding an improvised crossbow was that monster Hiroshi Goro, unkempt and dressed in tattered clothing. A far cry from his usual disgustingly impeccable self. He scampered off into the trees like a sewer rat.

"Are you alright?! Do y-you need me to call the ambulance?!" said Misaki. There was so much blood dripping from Touma's hand.

Touma dipped his right hand into a river, "Don't worry about it."

If he was bleeding, there must be a wound. But after washing off the blood, there was no wound at all.

"You can do magic?" said Misaki.

"What exactly do you even mean by magic? Using mana to cast spells or something?"

Olly did explain magic as the conversion of life force into mana which then can be used to cast spells, but Misaki felt that there was something much more to it than what Olly was willing to reveal.

"It's probably not magic then," said Touma. "I may not remember much, but I'm sure that the power in my right hand isn't magic."

"Then what is it?"

"You'd think I'm crazy, but the power in my right hand can do far more crazy things than what you've ever seen."

Misaki extended her pinky, "I promise I'd believe anything you say."

"Alright..."

Apparently, Touma had past lives because the power in his right hand would keep reviving him in different forms. Out of those past lives, only three of them was him being human, with this current life as his third one. Or was this all just a psychological trauma caused by his apparent misfortune?

Touma grabbed her hand, "Let's go. It's not safe here."

"So that girl who has the same hair as me, she's like your ex from 1700 years ago?" said Misaki as they quickly made their way out of the park.

"If she's the only person I remember, I guess she must be someone really important?"

Someday, Misaki swore, she would also become someone important to him-

Swoosh.

Misaki crumpled to the ground with a knife to the side of her neck. She desperately grasped for air but none of it was going into her lungs. Was her short-lived happiness with Touma about to come to an end?

Touma stood shell-shocked and almost in tears, a rare display of vulnerability from him. He tried calling the ambulance, but as expected from his misfortune, the phone chose not to work at this critical moment. He hurled the phone down and crushed it with a foot.

"I... didn't expect for things to go so wrong," said Touma.

Misaki reached a hand towards Touma with whatever strength she had left to wipe the tears off his face and ended up smearing his face with blood. There was so much more she wanted to tell Touma, and yet 'Thank you' was all she could manage. Touma went to great lengths to isolate himself from society because of his ability to curse people with misfortune by touching them. It would take more than a story of physical abuse for him to intentionally curse someone. He must have found her necklace.

Olly's appearance from a yellow burst of light surprised Misaki. Even as he healed her wounds using magic, her mind was still slipping away. A pity that she couldn't remain awake to find out what was Olly talking about with Touma beyond him telling Touma that she would be fine once she wakes up.


	3. From Zero

Academy City was supposed to be a city with technology 30 years ahead of the world, but it looked just like any other ordinary city in Japan. The car driving her and Touma to a research facility was being driven by an AI, but the same cannot be said for the other cars driven manually by humans.

"Is everything alright?" said Touma.

Misaki kept her eyes by the window, "Yeah."

Couldn't he just lie about not finding her necklace and accidentally viewed the contents within it? It was his fault for making things so awkward.

"You don't seem alright."

"I'm fine. Just leave me alone for a while."

Touma sighed resignedly as they left the car. He should really stop sighing. What did he expect from speaking the truth? Hug him with tears of gratitude for being the hero in her life? Start catering to his every whims and fancies like a love-stricken maiden hoping to win his love one day? Sorry if things didn't turn out the way you wanted it to be, you fucking imbecile.

A scientist led Misaki into a room where she would go through the Power Development Program. There were floating translucent panels filled with data and a chair equipped with very complicated looking machineries. A glimpse of what Academy City should be like as a technologically advanced city.

"I think I see what this city prioritizes the most," said Misaki.

The scientist introduced himself as Kihara Noukan. An experienced neurologist who sometimes does Power Development operations for fun.

Noukan inserted an IV line on her arm, "You have nothing to worry about. I take each and every operation I do very seriously."

"That's very reassuring from the guy who said he does those operations for fun."

Misaki would have loved for a female to do this operation instead, but she wasn't going to be a baby and scream for a replacement. Besides, who knows what sort of advantages she could... milk out from Noukan?

She slowly drew a circle on the back of the scientist's hand with a smile. "I understand that esper levels isn't something you can control, but I wonder if it's possible for you to give me a better ability?"

In Academy City, there were about 2.3 million people who are under the Power Development Program. Out of those people, 60% are Level 0s, which meant they were either powerless or had so little power that they might as well be powerless. The remaining 40% may not be a Level 0, but they might as well be a Level 0 if they have a useless ability.

Noukan placed a face mask over her, "Unfortunately, no. Rest assured that if you put in enough hard work, you will eventually obtain a useful ability."

He was either oblivious or being intentionally oblivious to her advances. Too much research and experimenting must have turned him into a virgin freak like Issac Newton.

"Fine."

Whatever ability she was going to get, it better be something so useless that no evil forces in Academy City would even think about bothering her.

===

Touma and Misaki made their way through a crowd before entering a restaurant for lunch.

"Good news, I'm cured," said Touma with a big smile on his face.

"You're cured? How?" said Misaki incredulously. No wonder Touma was willing to squeeze through the crowd with her.

"It's hard to explain… I guess somehow that thing in my right hand partially broke through the seal which resulted in a lot of misfortune for everyone. Now that it's properly sealed back in my right hand, everything should be okay now."

"You mean the power in your right hand? Or are you talking about a demonic entity that lives inside your right hand?"

"Demonic? I don't even know what- never mind, let's not talk about that anymore. The more I go on, the more crazier you think I am."

Imagine Breaker was a name Academy City gave to the power in his right hand which by the way is separate from that thing. Imagine Breaker apparently has the ability to negate supernatural phenomenons, such as esper abilities. For example, her esper ability was to transmit her thoughts to someone by touching them, but it would not work if she touched Touma's right hand while doing so. It would work if she touched somewhere else other than his right hand though. Maybe there was some truth in what he was saying.

Speaking of which, her esper ability was oddly labelled as Mental Out instead of Telepathy. It did kind of make sense though if you consider Mental as in thoughts in your head and Out as in transmitting those thoughts out of your head, but why not just name it Telepathy in the first place?

"Anyway," Touma raised his glass of vanilla soda, "Let's forget about everything in the past and start afresh in this new city."

Misaki giggled as she clinked her glass against his glass, "Cheers."

Guess he wasn't a complete idiot after all. See, it's not that hard to resolve the awkwardness between us.

After lunch, there was still some time to go sightseeing around the district before reporting to the boarding school at 5pm.

Misaki grabbed hold of Touma's hand. His face went red but chose not to say anything. What's the meaning of this? No response? Come on, at least say something to the super cute girl who just held your hand? I'm not going to embarrass myself by being the first one to speak.

Those jealous males hurling death glares at Touma should look at themselves in the mirror first. An ugly attitude is why they will and should remain single for the rest of their lives.

Misaki gave up when they reached the traffic light, "I'm holding your hand right now."

"Yes. I'm aware of that."

"Don't you think that it's because I really like you a lot?"

"What? So it isn't because you're afraid you'd lose me in the crowd? It'd be really troublesome if that were to happen because we haven't got our smartphones yet."

Misaki tightened her grip around Touma's hand. She wanted so badly to slap him for being that dense. It's okay, maybe he's just too embarrassed to admit otherwise.

They entered a phone shop to get their smartphones.

Touma looked intently at the various plans available.

"Let's go with the couple plan," said Touma.

Misaki's heart skipped a beat. Was that a- a confession?! Wait a minute… did he choose that plan because it was the cheapest plan available?

"I never thought I'd say this, but today must be my lucky day," said Touma excitedly. "I've never seen a plan that cheap ever in my life."

"All you have to do is take a picture together and you two will be eligible for the promotional pricing," said the smiling saleswoman with an instant camera.

Misaki hopped onto Touma's back and asked for the photo to be taken that way. What a lucky day indeed. She had her legs wrapped around his waist and her chest firmly pressed against his back. There are countless men who would pay through their noses for this experience.

After they were done with photo taking, the saleswoman gave her a leftover star keychain from the last promotion which looked good on her new smartphone. To complement her keychain, she also got a white phone case with starry patterns.

Before they left the shop, the saleswoman handed them a physical copy of the picture and sent a digital copy to their smartphone through the instant camera which had a built-in messaging function. It wouldn't be surprising if it could also be used to browse websites.

The smartphones in Academy City were so advanced that it was almost like a mini computer with the added functionality of an ordinary mobile phone. The Internet was now in the palms of her hands.

"If you beg me, I'll teach you how to evade the ban placed on porn websites," said Misaki.

"Don't ever underestimate men when it comes to porn. Our collective efforts can defeat any ban in Academy City."

Touma proudly showed off the first search result about how a legendary hacker known as the Goalkeeper gave up fighting the hordes of men who relentlessly defeated her efforts in banning porn websites.

"How often do you watch porn then? Do you have a favourite genre?"

"That's none of your business."

Misaki smiled, "Okay."

It was nice not to worry about this conversation turning into something perverted. There was a creep who- forget it.

Misaki noticed a bra that flew out from an alley corner. She tore through the alley and picked up a brick. There was a thug on top of a topless girl fondling her chest. She smashed the brick across that thug's head. A hand stopped her from dealing the next blow.

"You'll kill that guy!" said Touma.

Misaki dropped the brick, "I just… I'm sorry."

Forget it. He wouldn't understand that it was necessary for some kind of trash to be permanently disposed of.

The topless girl quickly put on her bra and her tracksuit top. Her face was bloody and bruised. She must have fought the four thugs lying unconscious but failed to defeat the last thug.

"Let's call Judgement," said Touma.

"No. Pretend you saw nothing, " said the girl before turning to Misaki. "You'd understand why right?"

"Take care," said Misaki before dragging a confused Touma out of the alley.

"But shouldn't we call Judgement to arrest that guy for assault?" said Touma.

"If she doesn't want Judgement to be called, then we should respect her decision. It's just as simple as that."

Touma sighed, "I guess you have a point."

They soon arrived at their dormitory owned by a boarding school which they will be attending bridging classes at for the next two to three years before advancing to high school.

For some reason, he seemed rather upset.

"Are you alright?" said Misaki.

"Must be tough being a girl if such things keep happening to them."

"It is, but that's no reason to just give up on life don't you think? Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow."

Misaki waved goodbye to Touma as she headed to her room.

If I told you that you're the only reason why I haven't given up on life yet, would you believe me or would you brush this off as a stupid joke? Maybe I'm the stupid joke who can only live because of you.

===

Kihara Noukan went through a report generated by the Tree Diagram with a metallic pair of extensions from his golden retriever body as a pleasant scent of bacon drifted from the kitchen. It said that the probability of Shokuhou Misaki achieving Level 5 was an impressive 97.9% given that the appropriate resources are allocated to her Power Development Curriculum.

Yuiitsu served a plate of eggs and bacon to Noukan, "Can't you believe it? That invisible entity from that boy's right hand actually said I lacked imagination."

Yuiitsu claimed that there was something nudging her to chop off Touma's right arm while doing the Power Development operation for him. She got curious and decided to do exactly that. An entity burst out of his right shoulder. It may be invisible, but you knew it was there facing you. It then said that she lacked imagination and retreated back into the right arm it regenerated for Touma.

"It's true," said Noukan.

Yuiitsu stared at him incredulously, "What? Do I really…"

"Lack imagination? Yes."

Most Kiharas like Yuiitsu never developed powers of their own because they are unable to accept that the scientific laws of this world are arbitrary. They can be modified like changing the settings in a software program. Simply put, they were too logical despite being geniuses.

"May I ask in what aspect do I lack imagination in?"

"Curiosity killed the cat, my dear niece."

Yuiitsu pinched off a piece of bacon strip with a sigh, "I get what you mean, but that is so very un-Kihara like. Are we just going to leave-"

"We cannot defeat the Chairman. If you're not careful, he'll end your life with just a thought. Forget everything you know about Kamijou Touma."

Yuiitsu fell silent and went back to the kitchen.

Touma's right hand was so important to the Chairman that whoever saw too deeply into its true nature will be eliminated without question.


	4. Academy City

Misaki picked a simple white dress from her wardrobe. No need to be so flashy on the first day. This boarding school did not require students to wear a uniform and even allowed them to go outside on their own after classes as long as they come back before 7pm.

_This school is awesome! o(〃＾▽＾〃)o_ texted Misaki to Touma before sending a selfie of herself in lingerie. Since she hadn't put on her dress yet, might as well. All boys like seeing a cute girl in lingerie. Touma was no exception.

Misaki sent another message to Touma.

_If I find this picture on another guy's phone, I'll show you what it means to be truly unfortunate._

Her stomach revolted at the thought of those trash masturbating to her pictures saved in their phones.

_I'm serious! ໒( ᓀ ‸ ᓂ )७_

Her roommate Takitsubo Rikou on the other hand, only had tracksuits in her wardrobe. Tracksuits to her are the most comfortable and practical outfit ever, so there was no reason for her to wear anything else. Definitely someone who doesn't care about her image at all. She looked so sleepy all the time that maybe she didn't have the energy in the first place.

Despite her sleepy appearance, Rikou could beat four men unconscious in the alley. The last scumbag trash standing almost had his way with a weakened Rikou if it wasn't for a brick across his head.

What a strange coincidence that the girl she met in an alleyway would end up as her roommate.

"... There's nothing wrong with pineapples on pizza," said Rikou. "I love how the sweetness of the pineapple brings the pizza to life."

"You should visit Italy someday," said Misaki. She winced in agony at the thought of eating junk pizza littered with pineapples. "Once you know what real pizza tastes like, you can never go back to eating rubbish."

"You look like a circus freak with your starry eyes, but you don't see me treat you any differently."

"Hey, there's no need to get personal."

It was difficult to tell if Rikou was joking or deeply offended because she only had one expression most of the time, but a general rule of thumb was that if Rikou raised a fist against you in class for calling her Sleepyhead for the hundredth time again, she was definitely deeply offended.

Misaki bowed before introducing herself in front of the class at the request of her form teacher, Tsukuyomi Komoe.

In Academy City where it was possible for a form teacher to be around the same height as her, her starry eyes suddenly didn't feel out of place. Adults might have found her eyes exotic, but kids often loved bullying her for being too different. The bullying got so bad that she was forced to stay at home for the safety of those losers.

The class monitor Fukiyose Seiri shook Misaki's hand with a smile, "If there's anything you need, feel free to approach me."

"Don't bother," said Rikou. "This class monitor is so useless that even a sack of potatoes is more useful than her."

"I tried my best Rikou, and I'm sorry that they're still calling you names. But I'm just a class monitor, not the Chairman of Academy City," said Seiri.

"She's probably just in a bad mood today," said Misaki to Seiri before quickly following Rikou to her seat.

Misaki was assigned a seat beside the window. Next to her was an albino girl with red eyes who introduced herself as Suzushina Yuriko. Rikou was seated next to Yuriko at the opposite end.

Yuriko had a far more pleasant vibe than Rikou even though she looked like a snow demon. The pixie hairstyle Yuriko wore looked great on her, but it was easy to mistake her as a guy if she wasn't wearing a skirt.

"I swear Rikou is a really nice girl once you get to know her. Just don't be rude and call her names," said Yuriko.

Misaki took out her textbook, "She's also someone very, very fond of pineapple on pizzas."

Today's lesson was on AIM diffusion fields, which was what all espers subconsciously emit. Even a Level 0 emits AIM diffusion fields, but only just a negligible amount. The more higher leveled one was, the stronger their AIM diffusion fields was. This was related to a concept called Personal Reality, a concept that may seem easy to understand at a glance, but their teacher Miss Tsukuyomi had to complete a masters in Personal Reality just to be qualified enough to teach them the fundamentals.

Yuriko turned to face Rikou, "You never told me you liked pineapple on pizzas."

"Because you never asked," said Rikou.

Yuriko nodded with a satisfied smile. Friends must be something very important to her if knowing a small thing she never knew before about a friend made her happy.

"Then do you like pineapple on pizzas?" said Yuriko to Misaki.

"Of course not. Pineapple does not belong on pizzas, period."

"Neither does the stars in your eyes," said Rikou.

Just how much does Rikou loves pineapple on pizzas to the point where she'd get personal at the slightest insult of it?!

"Oh yes, that reminds me. Are you free to join us for lunch later, Misaki?" said Yuriko.

"Sure, I'd love to!"

A snow demon and an eccentric girl possibly on the spectrum. Sounds like a fun group to be friends with. Or at the very least, a group where she finally wouldn't feel too out of place.

===

Hamazura Shiage loved Hawaiian pizza so much he finished two whole pans by himself for lunch. He happened to be a good friend of Takitsubo Rikou, the girl who was saved by Misaki's insane plan to defuse the bomb.

"I don't care what the stuck-up pizza purists say, pineapple on pizza is the best fucking thing I've ever tasted," said Shiage.

"Certainly not as bad as they said it was," said Touma.

Shiage was also his roommate and classmate. As thanks for getting Rikou out of trouble with some thugs in an alley, he decided to treat him to pizza for lunch. It was actually Misaki who saved Rikou with a brick to the thug's head, not him. They wanted him to be the hero in a story that omitted how Rikou almost let the thug had his way with her.

Misaki sent a picture of her having lunch with Rikou and another friend named Suzushina Yuriko. She had a cutesy V-sign pose with a brilliant smile. Yuriko had a more subdued smile like she wasn't used to smiling at the camera while Rikou appeared to be as sleepy as always but if you looked close enough she actually had a small smile on her face.

Friends was something Touma thought he could no longer have because he would end up cursing them with misfortune most of the time. Misaki was an exception, and as much as Touma hated to admit it, he was glad to have Misaki by his side. She was like a ball of sunshine that lit up his world.

There was another picture Misaki sent in a bikini which he deleted right after he saw the next message. He had no interest in knowing what it means to be truly unfortunate. If she's that worried, then maybe not send the picture in the first place?

Shiage was the only other person who saw the bikini picture and he definitely did not have this picture saved in his phone.

"When I think about it, Sleepyhead would look awesome in a bikini," said Shiage. "She has like the biggest boobs in her class."

"You sure Rikou is not on steroids or anything?"

Shiage laughed as he pointed to a bespectacled girl sweeping rubbish on the concrete pathway beside a convenience store, "Why don't you ask that girl over there if she's also on some boob enhancing steroids?"

The girl was around their age, but her boobs was around the same size as Rikou. The green armband over her left arm signified that she was a member of Judgement, a student police force responsible for maintaining order in Academy City. Despite Shiage knowing that, he still had the audacity to point at Judgement girl and laugh loudly about her boobs.

"Sir, if you say one more thing about my breasts, I'll detain you in custody for 48 hours," said the angry Judgement girl to Shiage.

"I know my rights, Miss Judgement. You have no power to arrest me unless I'm misusing my powers," said Shiage.

A smug girl with a wide forehead snapped her fan shut, "Apologize to that girl right now, or I'll-"

"Or what?" said Shiage. "Who the hell are you anyway?"

The smug girl glared at them, as if they had committed a crime for not knowing who she was, "My name is Kongou Mitsuko. Even if you don't know who I am, you must at least know about Kongou Airlines, the biggest aviation company in the whole of Japan."

Touma sighed. This was getting way out of hand.

"It's all our fault for insulting that girl over there. Sorry. Let's go, Shiage," said Touma.

Mitsuko snapped open her fan, "I'm not going to let you two off that easily."

Touma raised his right arm and negated a concentrated blast of wind from Mitsuko.

Mitsuko blinked in confusion before her smug smile returned, "So you do have an ability. I was wrong to think that you were a useless Level 0 scum like the others."

"Level has nothing to do with this. Judge people by their actions, not by their levels!" said Touma. She reminded him too much of the trigger-happy mobs who declared their parents were demons to be purged from this world just because they gave birth to him.

"I've never met any Level 0s worthy of any respect. All they do is whine and whine about how low leveled they are without thinking about putting any effort in improving. I think I was being nice when I call them scums," said Mitsuko.

"You're just a fucking moron."

Touma dodged a cylindrical robot ejected by Mitsuko's ability. The robot crashed into a lamppost behind him.

"What are you waiting for Miss Judgement?" said Shiage. "Arrest that bitch for destroying public property."

The Judgement girl hesitatingly took out her handcuffs, "Miss, I'm sorry but you clearly violated a law."

"You must be joking! You can't arrest me. I was just trying to protect you from these two perverts," said Mitsuko.

A screeching sound rang out.

The Judgement girl and Mitsuko fell on their knees in agony.

Touma grabbed Mitsuko with his right hand, hoping that it might somehow make her feel better, "Are you alright?"

Mitsuko heaved a sigh of relief, "I don't know what you just did, but the sound doesn't hurt as much as before."

The Judgement girl grabbed hold of Touma's right pinky, "My senior mentioned that there was a device that could paralyze espers by emitting a special kind of sound to disrupt their AIM field. I think his right hand is somehow negating the effects of that sound."

Touma dialed for an ambulance with his left hand. Meanwhile, there were countless others in a similar situation as Mitsuko and Judgement girl, but there was no way he could help everyone with just one right hand.

"I see," said Mitsuko. "You must have some kind of molecule manipulation ability, spiky scumbag."

"That's not actually-"

"Next time, treat girls with the respect they deserve. They're not objects for you creeps to be commenting on."

"I… never mind."

Shiage picked up a robotic limb near the lamppost before flames erupted from a window at the upper levels of a shopping mall.

"Stay here. I'll go find the source of that sound," said Shiage.

Touma shook off the two girls holding his right hand and chased after Shiage into an alley. Shiage would most likely get himself killed trying to do this alone.

"What's the plan?" said Touma.

"Disable the sound and then beat those bastards up."

"Let's just go with disable the sound."

Touma picked up a trash can lid and a broken beer bottle. A lousy substitute for a sword and a shield that would probably fall apart after a few seconds in actual combat.

He then hid behind a stack of crates with Shiage when he heard chattering. The source of the sound and the group of thugs behind this whole thing must be right up ahead after a corner.

"Which corner?" said Touma.

"Good question. Left?"

Pop vocals blared cheerfully from Shiage's phone.

"Or we can just take a corner each!"

Touma hurled the broken beer bottle at a thug before raising his trash can lid against a barrage of bullets.

"You think you can buy enough time for me to change my ringtone?" said Shiage.

"Seriously?!"

"Guess I'll have to change it later."

The loud clanging came to a gradual stop. They were out of bullets. He hurled the lid like a frisbee and knocked out the remaining thugs.

Touma leaped to the right to face the last thug with a gun pointed at him.

"You destroy the Capacity Down, and I'll shoot your friend over here!" said the thug.

Shiage was behind him facing a van equipped with a stereo-like system. A robotic limb had pierced through the radar dish attached at the top of the van.

"Calm down. We're all Level 0s here. I know being a Level 0 sucks, but there's no need to kill innocents," said Touma.

"I've never killed anyone. I just wanted to send a message to them."

"Them?"

"Bullshit. You just fucking set a bomb off at Seventh Mist. Do you have any idea just how many people are there?" said Shiage.

"That wasn't me, you fucking piece of shit."

"So you expect us to believe you and let this go?" said Shiage.

The thug pulled the trigger.

Touma charged towards the thug, "Destroy the Capacity Down!" as more bullets went through his body. The pain only served as an adrenaline shot to keep him standing and react even faster against the thug's attempt to physically hit him with the gun.

The thug threw an overhead strike, "I've lost everything because of them!"

Touma ducked and sent an uppercut across the thug's jaw, "I've lost people too. I also wished that there was something I could do to change that. But there was nothing I could do!"

The thug smashed Touma's nose with the pistol, "Spare me your fucking hypocrisy. At the end of the day, you're just a coward afraid to fight against the darkness."

Touma clenched his fist. He did not know what exactly did the thug meant by 'the darkness', but there was a darkness in his heart he once fought against. If the world hated him so much, and refused to let him die, then why not just destroy it? That thug was right. He was a coward. The reason why he hadn't turned into a terrorist like that thug was because of his fear of losing whatever he had left.

"If you think your childish actions can change anything, then let me first destroy that fucked up delusion of yours!"

He channeled whatever energy he had left into his fist and knocked the thug unconscious

Touma collapsed onto a pool of his own blood, "Do me a favor and call Anti-Skill. I don't think I can stay awake any longer."

"Sorry," said Shiage. "I just busted both my hands trying to destroy that damm Capacity Down. Turns out that metal is an excellent conductor of electricity. Cool finisher speech by the way."

"Thanks. It sure sounded a lot better than shut the fuck up, you public nuisance," said Touma before his consciousness slipped away into darkness.

===

Suzushina Yuriko never had much real life experience with boys, but she was sure that boys loved games like Dragon Quest or Fatal Kombat, not funny dating simulators like Cat Paradise. There was even a 50% discount on Fatal Kombat 7.

"All men are the same," said Rikou. "What they truly love most are cute girls with large breasts. The larger, the better. I know from personal experience."

"I'm sure Touma would like Fatal Kombat 7 more than Cat Paradise," said Misaki. "Also, you're not that cute."

"See Yuriko, all they care about are breasts. Looks don't even matter to them. A shallow game like Cat Paradise would be perfect for him."

Rikou thought of buying a game for Touma as thanks for helping her out to chase away some thugs at the alleyway. The problem of what game to buy could be easily solved by calling Touma, but that would ruin the surprise.

"You should also buy a game for Shiage for always making him so worried about you," said Yuriko. "And me as well."

Rikou liked exploring alleyways. No matter how dangerous it was, she didn't care. When the mood strikes, there's no stopping her. Thank god nothing bad happened so far. The best Rikou could agree on as a compromise was to do her exploring during the day before sunset.

Rikou grabbed three copies of Cat Paradise, "You can't call yourself a real gamer until you played Cat Paradise."

Yuriko nursed her cheeks with a mock frown. Associating Cat Paradise with the term real gamers was like a slap across her face.

"That hurts. And to think I treated you as my best friend."

A light bulb lit up within Yuriko's mind. Time to end this senseless fight over which game to get for Touma.

Yuriko grabbed a copy of Rebellious Kunoichi, "Why don't we go with this? There's both fighting and boobs in this game. I think it's absolutely perfect."

"No," said both Misaki and Rikou.

"But… why?"

Misaki pointed to a ridiculously busty girl on the front cover of My Lovely Stepsister, "It's simple. When a man gets aroused, blood from his brain gets diverted to his genitals."

Rikou then pointed to Fatal Kombat 7, "Due to the lack of blood in his brain, he is unable to focus on the fighting and ends up losing too many lives. Those sluts now becomes an annoying distraction instead of eye candy to be enjoyed while fighting."

"Therefore," said Misaki. "Getting Touma a game with either 100% girls or 100% fighting would give him the best experience possible."

Yuriko resignedly shrugged her shoulders, "Boys aren't that complicated. I think he'd be happy with whatever we give him."

Participating in raids in a game called Fantasy Online with other players through voice chat was the only time Yuriko had any interactions with boys. Young or old, friendly or unfriendly, all of them were simple people who just wanted a good time with their friends through games.

She also wanted to have a good time with her friends just like anyone else, but until she learned how to properly control her powers, that would always be a dream she kept on praying for it to be true one day. All it took was one slip up, and her friends would either end up dead or permanently disabled.

There was something… a strange sound… no!

Yuriko hugged her knees in tears. Powerful tremors. Things breaking apart and smashing against each other. People screaming in agony. She couldn't bear to look. Her powers were going out of control again because of that sound!

"Yuriko, listen. I need you to calm down," said Rikou.

Rikou had the ability to manipulate AIM fields to a certain extent. If she concentrated hard enough, she could use her ability to bypass her passive Reflection and touch her without any grave repercussions. Whatever the sound was, it was specifically meant to disrupt the AIM fields of every esper within its range and send them out of control.

"Everyone will be okay, right?"

Rikou nodded, "Misaki is doing her best to shut off that sound, so promise me you'd do your best and stay calm, okay?"

"Okay."

Yuriko closed her eyes and took in deep breaths. She needed to be calm for Rikou so that she would have an easier time correcting the distortion in her AIM field.

The sound stopped.

Rikou lied.

It was the same as always.

Blood of her precious friend, all around her.

===

Facing Hebitani Tsuguo was three of Wataru's men wrapped up in ropes like a Christmas gift.

"We'll never work for an ugly bastard like you," spat one of Wataru's men.

"Wataru will always be our leader, you fucking traitor!" said another one of Wataru's men.

Under Wataru's leadership, Big Spider was a baby throwing tantrums that the adults laugh off as a cute nuisance. Wataru was naive to think he could send a message to them without hurting innocent people. Now that Wataru has been arrested by Anti-Skill, it was time for the baby to throw tantrums that would bring those adults to their knees.

Tsuguo instructed his underlings to drag those three men to the scrapyard near their hideout. If they insist on being so stubborn, fine. Their organs should fetch a good price at the black market. Nashio Gonshiro was another stubborn fuck who set a booby trap for his underlings at Seventh Mist as a fuck you to him. Luckily, the fucker's booby trap caught his underlings after they were done with the job.

He dialed a number on his phone, "Is this Mr Aritomi? How soon will we get paid for that job at Seventh Mist?"

The job involved them getting past Seventh Mist's security and hack into the mall's PA system to play Mr Aritomi's special audio file. God knows what the hell he was trying to achieve with his 'experiment'.

"Ah yes," said Mr Aritomi, "The data we've gathered with your help has-"

"Just shut the fuck up and pay us already."

"Very well."

Academy City will soon learn that Level 0s are humans that deserve some fucking respect, not cheap disposable utensils.


	5. Prelude To A Tragedy

Misaki clenched her teeth as she fought against her own out of control AIM field from knocking her unconscious. The sound must be stopped before Yuriko ends up destroying the whole mall. She shut off the sound inside the control room through a computer with four screens before letting out a long sigh of relief. This computer had administrative rights over the entire PA system of this mall, but the PA system was split across different areas, so it was possible for her to shut off just the specific area where Yuriko was in.

Oh god, no.

Misaki furiously typed commands after commands into the computer. Fighting against another hacker was like a game of tug-of-war. The first one who slips up and enters the wrong command loses complete control over the computer.

"Not bad," said a female robotic voice.

Because Misaki could only focus on defending just the specific area which Yuriko was in, she left the rest undefended. She didn't know enough about Academy City's computers to exponentially increase her command inputting speed. In this fight, the faster one is able to input commands, the more areas one can defend.

"I won't lose to a disgusting hacker like you," said Misaki.

For Yuriko's sake, she would keep fighting. Forcing Yuriko to do things she doesn't want to… that was no different from rape!

The disgusting hacker took over three out of the four screens. All three screens was now playing a video of her having sex with the fat owner of a PC cafe to get a permanent room for free.

Misaki's hands went into auto-pilot as she stared at the screen with her mouth agape in horror. That's impossible. She made sure there was no recording devices hidden in the room. It must have been recorded with Academy City's technology... the rapist who secretly followed her all along planted a bug somewhere on her clothes?!

"Whore," said the disgusting hacker.

Misaki blinked tears away. The disgusting hacker could have just played that same sound to drive her AIM field out of control and win, but no, she just had to remind her of a traumatic past she wished she could forget about.

"I'd like to at least know who I'm dealing with," said Misaki with every word dripping with venom. If she could reach behind the screen and strangle the hacker to death even if it means destroying any possible future with Touma, she would.

"I'm the Devil of Academy City. I'll contact you again when I have some use for you."

The Devil disconnected. Misaki quickly took control over the remaining areas and stopped the sound for good. Time to turn-

"Put your hands up!" said a male voice.

Misaki raised both her hands, and turned around slowly. A scrawny male security guard who looked around 19 or 20 years old was pointing a gun at her. There was a noticeable bulge in his blue pants. It must be because of that disgusting porn video still playing behind. Good. Less blood flowing to his brain meant that he was more easily distracted.

She lowered a hand and undid the zip behind her dress. Every action she took to strip away her dress and lingerie has to be slow and deliberate. Any sudden action might scare that virgin enough to fire a shot at her. The dark blue patch around his crotch area was definitely not him being so scared that he pissed his pants.

A naked Misaki turned all the way round, "Look, no weapons."

"Can y-you at least tell me why are you here?"

Misaki licked her lips seductively as she grabbed hold of that virgin's hands, "Could you promise to pretend you didn't see me if I… help you out with your little problem over there?"

The virgin's face flushed bright red, "I don't understand what you mean by that!"

Misaki guided the gun back to its holster with one hand as she brushed her other hand across the bulge. It was disgusting to see that bulge twitch excitedly in response.

"How cute," giggled Misaki. She had gotten so good with putting on a mask so convincing she could fool any man into thinking that she was completely into him.

"It's my first time, so..."

With the gun safely away from his hands, Misaki triggered her Mental Out ability and knocked him unconscious by rapidly flooding his mind with junk telepathic messages similar to launching a Denial Of Service attack to a server. She then wrapped her hands with his uniform and fired a few shots to his head. The less people who knew about her past, the better.

Yes, she'd fuck anyone no matter how repulsive if the price was right. It was the fastest and easiest way to earn money and benefits for her plan to escape from that monster Hiroshi Goro. But why limit herself right? She could fuck even more men and get even more money and benefits for her own selfish gains. The fat owner of a PC cafe not only gave her a permanent room after letting him fuck her, but also taught her how to operate a computer and even enrolled her into an expensive virtual course on how to hack into almost any computer system conducted by the legendary Antonio Katze himself.

If Touma ever found out about how utterly disgusting she actually was... no, he must never find out. Never.

===

Misaki knew Touma would survive being shot at. He was strong enough to survive multiple suicide attempts in the past according to his mother. Even so, it hurts to see him lying unconscious on that bed hooked up to machines.

"That crazy motherfucker is going to be alright," said Shiage.

"I hope so."

Easy for you to say that when you're not the one being shot at.

All Shiage suffered was second degree burns for ripping apart a loudspeaker known as the Capacity Down with his bare hands. Academy City's healthcare was so advanced that it took only an hour of intensive therapy to completely heal those burns.

Rikou was already awake despite having suffered multiple injuries to her internal organs for attempting to keep her both her AIM field and Yuriko's AIM field from spiraling out of control. If Rikou could wake up, so will Touma.

"You keep an eye on Touma. I'll be right back," said Misaki.

Seated at a bench just outside the hospital building was Yuriko.

Misaki offered Yuriko a can of iced cappuccino, "You still have an hour or so before visiting hours are over. I'm sure Rikou would love for you to visit her."

Yuriko sighed, "I know. I just don't have the guts to face her. It was all my fault."

"It. Is. Not. Your. Fault. Repeat after me."

It was all that Devil's fault. Not Yuriko.

The feeling of being forced into doing things she didn't want to do was something Misaki understood too well. The part that really screwed her up was the huge disconnect between her body and mind each time she was forced to do it.

"Misaki? Why are you crying?" said Yuriko.

Misaki frantically wiped her tears away. Just when she thought she had already let go. Turns out she had just merely buried it somewhere deep within her.

"Let me go wash my face," said Misaki.

She was supposed to convince Yuriko to visit Rikou, not hide in the toilet and push those dark memories of losing over and over again against herself back into a tub of vanilla ice cream.

Waiting for Misaki outside was Yuriko.

"Are you alright?" said Yuriko.

"Yeah."

"If there's anything troubling you, I'm all ears."

"I'm fine, really."

Yuriko nodded with a knowing smile, "Great. Let's go."

And then they headed into Rikou's ward and started chatting about whatever came to mind like clothes and favourite TV shows. She was just a friend that Yuriko met for less than a day, yet Yuriko was willing to let go of her own issues of facing Rikou instantly just to make her feel better.

Misaki mentioned how nice it would be to wear a magical girl costume from Magical Girl Kanami with a smile. A dirty slut like her may not deserve any of the kindness Yuriko had given her, but that doesn't mean she was going to throw it away like an ungrateful brat.

===

Yomikawa Aiho opened her laptop with a groan to write a report on today's incident at Seventh Mist. This was the part of her job as an Anti-Skill officer she hated most.

At approximately 1400 hours, a mysterious sound being played over the PA system of a shopping mall known as Seventh Mist caused the AIM diffusion fields of espers in the mall to go out of control. This resulted in damages totaling 700 million yen with 20 dead and 37 injured.

Komoe sighed, "I hope Yuriko understands that it's not her fault."

Suzushina Yuriko may have a powerful AIM diffusion field, but it was the nature of her ability that resulted in the death of 20 people when her AIM diffusion field went out of control. An AIM diffusion field is merely a conduit through which an esper ability can manifest itself in the real world. No matter how strong an AIM diffusion field is, if its nature is something like Clairvoyance, it'll have a lesser impact when out of control compared to Vector Manipulation.

"At times like this, a dozen beers to drown your sorrows is the way to go."

"Don't you dare take her down a path of a hopeless alcoholic. And besides, Yuriko is underage."

Aiho laughed, "I guess she'll have to settle with fruit juice until she's older."

Anyway, to stop Yuriko from destroying the whole mall, Shokuhou Misaki made her way to the control room at the 47th floor where she attempted to stop the sound from playing through the computer in charge of the PA system. According to Misaki's testimony, stopping the sound was her only priority and she did not pay much attention to anything else.

Meanwhile, there were three unidentified males who died of an explosion that occurred at the 47th floor as well and a security guard named Arata Daiki who died from multiple gunshot wounds to his head. The bullets were fired from his own gun... what? The worst part was that surveillance data was conveniently wiped out, so there was no trails available to follow. A sure sign of some meddling from the 'darkness' of Academy City as usual.

Aiho closed her laptop. The report can wait until tomorrow morning.

A night out with Komoe was one of the ways she kept herself sane. Dealing with the frustration that there was nothing she could do about the injustices in Academy City never gets easier. It sure wasn't easy for those Level 0s in Skill-Out factions as well.

===

Touma woke up to the smell of a hospital. He had been in hospitals enough times to know if he's in one just from the smell alone.

A doctor with a frog-like face jotted notes on a medical chart. He introduced himself as Heaven Canceller, the doctor who took out the bullets from his body.

"It's a miracle that you're still alive."

"You're not the first doctor to tell me that."

Heaven Canceller raised an eyebrow, "Let's hope I'll be the last doctor to tell you that."

"By the way, how long have I been unconscious?"

"Three days."

"Miss Shokuhou left some money by the drawer. If you're thirsty, there's a vending machine right outside here."

"Where's Misaki?"

"I'm not sure, but she'll probably be back soon."

Touma left the ward and waited for his turn to buy a drink from the vending machine. Shiage should be fine. Academy City's healthcare is so advanced that even third degree burns can be healed in just a few hours with their regenerative therapy according to this poster beside the machine.

"Rotten luck," said Touma. He even pressed the same button and inserted the same amount of money as the person in front of him. Is this a form of discrimination? What happened to equality for all? Just because his luck was shit doesn't mean he should be treated differently from the others.

"Since I'm in a good mood," said a girl with short brown hair. "I'll help you get your drink."

The machine beeped softly when that girl flicked some electric sparks towards it. No drinks came out.

"Anti Electromaster measures huh… I guess I'll have to do it the old fashioned way then," said the girl.

She threw a roundhouse kick at the machine, "Chaser!"

The machine spat out a drink. Out of so many options, the machine had to choose cranberry cider. Even stray dogs goes into seizures after sipping cranberry cider, not to mention a human being such as himself.

Touma offered the drink to that girl, "I don't like cranberry cider. Thanks for your help though."

"Don't mind if I do," said the girl before she gulped down the poisonous drink as if it was cranberry soda.

"Why are you at the hospital anyway?"

This girl looked very familiar. Have they met somewhere outside of Academy City before?

"Donating my DNA for medical purposes. Apparently, they're going to find a cure for muscular dystrophy with my DNA."

Touma noticed a nurse in full sprint about to knock into the girl and pulled her into his arms.

"What the hell are you doing?!" said the girl.

"Saving your ass from being knocked down."

"You're awake, Touma," said Misaki. "How long do you intend on holding her in your arms?"

Touma pushed the girl away. There was a dangerous glint in Misaki's eyes. If Misaki was holding a knife, she would definitely stab that girl with a smile on her face. Just like what Mum would almost do if Dad accidentally ends up flirting with other women. Jealousy can be a really scary thing in females.

Wait, why was that girl staring at Misaki so strangely? Does she somehow know her?

Touma realized why that girl looked so familiar to him. She was the crazy Electromaster who also saw that video playing from Misaki's necklace. At that time, she had no idea what she just watched, but she must asked her parents afterwards and now she knows as well.

Come on Biribiri, don't just stare at her. Say something!

"Your eyes… I think I've seen them somewhere before," said Biribiri.

Misaki pressed the button for cranberry cider on the vending machine, "And where if I may ask?"

If Biribiri doesn't come up with something other than 'through a strange video I saw projected from a necklace', the hospital will have to prepare three more operation rooms because things are going to get ugly.

Misaki had maintained her smile for so long it was starting to make him uncomfortable. Biribiri was not only uncomfortable, but angry and disgusted when Misaki offered her the drink.

Biribiri slapped the offer away and left through an elevator. Even if she said nothing, her expression basically answered the one thing he hoped she would not answer. Rotten luck.

Touma sighed, "Technically, she found your necklace, not me."

He then explained to Misaki that the Electromaster who he only remembered as Biribiri since he forgot her name 'saved' her from a mugger. Biribiri, like some people, refused to listen and still chose to touch him despite his warnings. Biribiri somehow lost control over her ability and that triggered the necklace to play the video in it.

"Let's not talk about this ever again. Remember what you said at the restaurant during our first day here?"

"Alright, my bad for talking about it."

He only wanted to clarify things to prevent any misunderstandings, but he did say to forget about whatever happened in the past and start afresh. There shouldn't be any need to clarify something that doesn't matter anymore.

Misaki tossed him the cranberry cider drink, "If you can finish this, I'll give you a reward."

"You can drink it if you want. There's no difference between drinking poison and cranberry cider. I've seen stray dogs go into seizures just from drinking cranberry cider."

"If you trust me, just drink it."

"Alright, I trust that you're not planning to poison me."

Cranberry cider was clearly stated on the can, but the contents inside was actually cranberry soda?! No wonder Biribiri could drink everything without breaking a sweat.

Misaki locked her arms around his arm, "If you look behind at the ingredient label, you'll realize that there's zero alcohol content. There's no way this drink could actually be cider."

"That... makes sense."

Seria-nee, or Kumokawa Seria, used to love pointing out facts like this to him. She was his first friend, but they were so close that he saw her as the smart and reliable older sister. One day, Seria's father died in a freak accident moments after he touched him. The next day after her father's death, she disappeared from his life. He hoped one day he would be able to find Seria and apologise for accidentally cursing her father with misfortune even though that would change nothing.

Misaki had dragged him to the rooftop garden. There were transparent glass panels constructed around the perimeter to prevent anyone from jumping down. Flowers swayed gracefully in the wind as they took a seat on one of the benches.

She rested her head on his shoulder, "I was so worried you were going to be dead for good."

"There's nothing to be worried about. I once jumped from a building and three days later my body healed itself completely. I'm really, really hard to kill. I think I could even survive a nuclear explosion."

"You won't improve as a person if you keep relying on that," yawned Misaki. "All I wish is for a peaceful life in Academy City with you, but… let me just rest for a moment before I continue."

Her head ended up slipping from his shoulder onto his lap.

Touma brushed his fingers across her blonde hair. She must be exhausted from taking care of him for the past three days.

"Thanks."

Even though he probably didn't deserve it, but having this little ball of sunshine care about him was a nice feeling that warmed his heart.

===

Aritomi Haruki adjusted his spectacles as he made his way to the facility that would be holding this year's Academic Assembly. In a place where espers get the most attention, the Academic Assembly was somewhere a Level 0 like him can finally be recognized for their intelligence instead of their esper abilities. Just because the Board promoted them to Level 3 or 4 doesn't make them a god who could freely trample upon those below them without any consequences. He may be a Level 0, but he had an intellect that far surpass most people in this city. Yet those dumb espers who could shoot lightning or fire from their hands gets worshipped like a god.

He noticed an Electromaster hurling a lightning bolt at a man running away with a purse in hand. The Electromaster wearing a Gekota hairpin on her head was definitely Misaka Mikoto, the first Electromaster who reached Level 3 about two days ago. There was even a city-wide announcement through the Blimp about her 'achievement'.

The crowd started cheering as the lady thanked the Electromaster for getting her purse back from the man. The Electromaster might appear to be embarrassed from all the attention she was getting, but she was actually enjoying the attention by all those people she deemed as beneath her. Time to knock that arrogant esper down a notch or two.

"Excuse me," said Haruki. "Don't you think you went overboard with what you did?"

"Did I?" said the Electromaster confused. "I assure you that I-"

"Did not use your powers recklessly?"

Haruki kicked one of the paralysed thief's clenched fist to reveal a blade hidden inside, "Fortunately, you managed to incapacitate him in one shot. What if you failed? He could've taken a woman or a child hostage."

The crowd fell into a quiet murmur.

"I-"

"I know-"

Sparks flew from Mikoto's hair, "No you don't! Stop interrupting me!"

She was growing more and more irritated. Good. If she were to electrocute him now, he could then point out how horrible that esper was for using her powers so recklessly. The crowd would surely sympathise with him, and she would lose all that attention she had been enjoying just moments before.

"Just because you're a Level 3 doesn't mean you won't fail. Three days ago, there was another Level 3 who caused the death of 20 people because of the reckless use of her powers. What was her name again? Ah yes, Suzushina Yuriko, the demon who causes destruction wherever she goes."

It wasn't hard to spot Suzushina Yuriko in the crowd. Her Albinism made her stand out among the rest who had normal skin color. How pathetic. Yuriko possessed the strongest ability in Academy City, yet she was a crybaby who would amount to nothing if she was a Level 0. If he had Yuriko's ability, making Academy City a better place would be as easy as making a phone call.

Haruki felt something hard hit his head.

"Who did that?!" said Haruki as he looked around the crowd.

Takitsubo Rikou stepped out of the crowd, "Me. Do you have a problem with that?"

It was no surprise that Academy City would pair the most unique esper with the most powerful esper together. Rikou's ability to manipulate AIM fields to a certain extent made her the most unique esper. She was also predicted to be the most troublesome obstacle to his own plans for Academy City.

"I'm going to call Judgement and arrest you for assault-"

Rikou slammed her foot into his testicles.

He bent over in agony as the waves of pain relentlessly assaulted him. He was wearing spectacles, but his vision had become so blurry he might as well not wear one.

"This is for being a liar," said Rikou. "The incident three days ago was caused by everyone's AIM fields going out of control by a strange sound. Not once did Yuriko recklessly used her powers."

Rikou then pushed him to the ground and firmly planted her foot on his face.

"And this is for being a petty, spiteful man. The fact is that Misaka Mikoto apprehended the thief without causing any harm to him or anyone else around him. You're just jealous that she was the hero, not you."

The crowd erupted into cheers.

Haruki clenched his teeth in anger. She had caused grievous harm to him, and everyone was cheering for her?!

"I won't waste my time with you anymore," spat Haruki.

He endured the booing from the crowd as he stumbled past them with both hands nursing his sore testicles. They will soon realize that having abilities isn't everything. The gods that they worship isn't as omnipotent as they think.

And most importantly, Takitsubo Rikou will pay for what she did to him.

===

Misaki formed a telepathic network with the Telepathy Duo, Edasaki Banri and Haruue Erii, by holding hands. The advantage of a telepathic network was that they did not have fight against the loud chattering in the classroom since they could bypass the ear and transmit what they wanted to say directly to the brain. It took some effort, but they managed to establish a connection with Touma. He had a lot of catching up to do since he missed three days of lessons.

It probably wasn't nice to say this, but other than the Telepathy Duo, the rest of Touma's class are either retarded or doesn't care about doing well in their studies. Shiage for example, would rather spend hours on getting good at Mortal Kombat 7 than to study for the upcoming test.  
As for Touma, well, let's just say he's trying his best unlike Shiage.

The three of them decided to shut the telepathic network down. They did what they could for Touma.

Banri patted Touma's shoulder with a sigh, "Your talent lies elsewhere outside of school."

Erii smiled, "Say, do you have any cool talent you can show us?"

Touma scratched the back of his head, "Not really… unless you consider surviving bullet shots a cool talent?"

"That is not a talent," said Misaki.

"It's a cool ability though," said Erii. "I'm sure anyone would love to have the ability to survive being shot at."

"You could do a lot of good with that cool talent of yours. Like joining Judgement and help make the city a better place," said Banri.

Misaki shot a glare at Touma. Please Banri, don't give Touma any ideas that might make him end up at the hospital in a coma again!

Touma gulped, "Which… is also possible without getting involved in a shootout. For example, sweeping the streets can help make the city a better place in its own way."

Misaki nodded with a satisfied smile. Good. He got the message.

"Then you're wasting that talent of yours. Don't you think that's kind of selfish if you choose not to help people in a better way?" said Banri.

Come on Banri, don't be mean. There's nothing wrong with being more considerate to your loved ones and not make them worry so much by playing the hero for no reason.

Misaki held Banri's hand to communicate telepathically the reason why Touma should not be making use of his 'talent' to play hero.

"If you still have parents, then that's a different case of course," said Banri sheepishly. "I'm a Child Error, so I don't have to worry about my parents."

Erii tilted her head in confusion, "But Touma, this is a boarding school for Child Errors. Why are you here if you have parents?"

"An administrative error I guess?" chuckled Touma.

"Non Child Errors have the option to join schools for Child Error if their parents believe that they can get a better education there," said Motoharu as he handed them a notification letter about the upcoming Academic Assembly field trip. "Hey Kamiyan, if you keep at it, you might just be able to form a harem with all the girls in our class and the class next door."

"I really don't get what you mean," said Touma.

Motoharu flashed a sly grin before walking away.

Tsuchimikado Motoharu wore an unbuttoned t-shirt, which was clearly a deliberate attempt to show off his six pack abs, and what's with the sunglasses anyway? Even if this was a beach, he would still look like a slimebag. He also talked like a slimebag, and was probably a slimebag on the inside as well. Touma deserved a better class monitor than this slimebag. Even if Touma no longer curse others with misfortune, he unfortunately still remains unfortunate.

Banri slapped Touma's shoulder with a chuckle, "Don't mind him, he's just messing with you."

"He has a… very unique way of making friends," said Erii.

Those girls were just too naive to see how much of a slimebag Motoharu was.

The Telekinesis Duo, Ishihara Yuusuke and Yamasaki Michio, moved to help their master Yuriko with her bag of groceries. Master as in master and disciple, not master and slave. Yuriko had helped those two in getting better at video games so much that they see Yuriko as their master.

Misaki's eyes lit up upon seeing a tub of strawberry sorbet placed in front of her. How thoughtful of Yuriko to upsize her request!

"You sure you can finish them all before afternoon classes start?" said Touma.

"Of course," said Misaki.

"Don't underestimate the stomach of a girl when it comes to desserts," said Yuriko.

Misaki laughed, "That's right."

She would have given Yuriko a high five if it wasn't for her passive Reflection ability. Anything that touches her gets reflected back in the exact same direction it came from, but the real danger lies in the amount of force that gets reflected back. There was a chance that her arm might get ripped off just by touching Yuriko.

Touma dug through the bag of groceries, "Did you forget about my soda?"

"I was sure I got them for you," said Yuriko as she double checked the contents inside the bag.

"I used your soda to deliver justice for Yuriko," said Rikou.

Shiage grabbed a popsicle from the bag, "What? Because someone made fun of Yuriko's flat chest?"

Rikou twisted Shiage's ears like a mother disciplining her child, "Pervert."

"Alright, alright! I get it!" said Shiage.

While Yuriko and Rikou were out getting food for the class, they encountered a vile man who lied about Yuriko recklessly using her powers three days ago at Seventh Mist. The truth was that everyone's AIM field went out of control because of a strange sound.

Rikou pointed to that vile man on her smartphone. Aritomi Haruki. A vile bespectacled man with small beady eyes like a rat, and supposedly a genius in the study of restricting esper abilities through interfering with their AIM field. He was also one of the researcher involved in the upcoming Academic Assembly event.

Must be disappointing for Yuriko to see that the researcher she has been rooting for to develop a device that could safely restrain her ability was actually a huge jerk. Kicking him in the balls was just letting him off too easily.

Misaki held Touma's right hand up, "What you see here is actually an AIM field nullifier, which is totally way better than whatever that jerk Aritomi has. It has the ability to prevent you from using your esper powers as long as it touches you. Let me demonstrate. Grab hold of Yuriko, will you?"

"Okay?" said Touma as he grabbed Yuriko's arm with his right hand.

Misaki pecked Yuriko on the cheek.

The class fell into complete silence before suddenly erupting into astonished cheers.

Yuriko's face glowed red in embarrassment, "You didn't have to kiss me!"

"We're both girls. There's no need to be shy about it," winked Misaki.

Banri gingerly poked Yuriko, "I can't believe I'm actually touching Yuriko."

Erii slid a finger across Yuriko's cheeks, "Amazing… your skin is just as soft as it looks."

Even Rikou broke into a smile for a second before resting her hand on Yuriko's left arm.

Yuriko broke down into tears of joy.

Rikou hugged Yuriko from behind and stroked her hair like a mother comforting a child.

Misaki wondered if she would be able to start a family someday with Touma. Be a good mother like how Rikou would be someday.

Touma smiled at her.

She smiled back.

Would Touma still be able to smile at her like that if he knew the full story of her dirty past? If he was still able to smile at her like that despite knowing everything, then he was no different than the disgusting men who would do or say anything just to get into her pants.

===

Hebitani Tsuguo had enough of people commenting on his punch perm hairstyle. It was a hairstyle he swore to wear forever even if the whole world was laughing at him.

"... But that's the Devil we're about to meet. Are you sure you won't at least consider wearing a wig?" said his trusted comrade Hagiwara Masu.

"I don't care if it's that Devil. I'm not going to change my hairstyle."

It was a silly promise he made with a friend, and not even the Devil can force him to break that promise.

They entered a warehouse in District 17. It was a huge warehouse, but there was only a Powered Suit and a lady in a black latex jumpsuit. Her face was obscured by a green helmet.

Tsuguo slapped Masu for ogling at the lady's hourglass figure, "Stop it. You're embarrassing yourself in front of the Devil."

"This is a variant of the HsPS-15 model," said the lady with a female robotic voice.

The lady in front of them was the Devil of Academy City. She used to have a reputation of beating the shit out of espers who likes to abuse their powers. It was about five months ago when she disappeared without a trace. Some say she finally met her match and got herself killed. Others say that she got tired of being the hero and decided to quit.

"So what's the plan?" said Tsuguo.

Turns out that the Devil merely decided to find a better way to end this injustice for good. She was very secretive about her plan. All he knew was that she had teamed up with Aritomi Haruki to develop the necessary parts needed for her plan.

"I suppose you don't have any problems with slaughtering Child Errors unlike your friend Wataru?" said the Devil.

"I'm different from that coward, but what's the point of killing innocent children?"

"Innocent, yes. But make no mistake, it won't be easy."

"Could you show us a quick demo of what this thing can do?" said Masu.

The Powered Suit lit up and hurled a fist towards the wall about a meter away. Shockwaves shattered the wall into rubble.

"We are going to use this… to kill Child Errors?" said Tsuguo. "Don't you think we might be overdoing it?"

The Devil chuckled, "Like I said, it won't be easy."

Masu frowned, "I still don't see the point of killing Child Errors. Is there something I'm not seeing here?"

"If you succeed," said the Devil. "Big Spider will have the rights to negotiate terms with some very important people. At the very least, you've sent a message to them that Level 0s are not people they should be messing with. Isn't that what Big Spider has been fighting for all along?"

Tsuguo slapped the Devil on the shoulder with a big grin, "God dammit. Still looking out for us Level 0s eh?"

"You'd probably die trying."

"I'm not afraid of death."

"Good."

All of Big Spider had lost someone one way or another because of the darkness in Academy City. It's unfortunate that innocent children had to die, but that was the only way to bring those adults to their knees and teach them a lesson to not mess with Level 0s. No need to be afraid of death when there's nothing left worth living for anyway.


End file.
